Trevor Noah on Philando Castile: The NRA champions legal gun owners — unless they’re black

On the June 19 edition of The Daily Show, host Trevor Noah turned his focus to the Philando Castile verdict, where the cop who killed Castile in July of last year was acquitted of all charges this Friday. Noah started out his rant with one simple question: “How?”

“Every time I watch that video,” Noah began, referring to Castille’s girlfriend’s Facebook Live video that showed the shooting’s immediate aftermath, “the question I ask myself is, ‘How?’ Just … how? How does a black person not get shot in America? Because if you think about it, the bar is always moving. The goalposts are always shifting. There’s always a different thing that explains why a person got shot … at some point you realize, there’s no real answer.”

Noah pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of the NRA, who was “completely silent” in the wake of the verdict despite that the shooting symbolizes “everything they stand against: an officer of the state depriving a citizen of his life because he was legally carrying a firearm.”

He then played a clip of a speech at 2014’s CPAC where NRA president Wayne LaPierre said that there’s “no greater freedom” than to be able to own “all the rifles, shotguns and handguns we want.”

“…‘Unless you’re black,’ is what [LaPierre] should’ve said,” Noah said, commenting on the video. “It’s interesting how the people who define themselves by one fundamental American right — the right to bear arms — show that once race is involved, the only right that they believe in is the right to remain silent.”

Watch the video below:

Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.